1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cassette display viewer device preferably to be used for recognition of the cassette display when a cassette storing a recording medium is loaded in various electronic products including video and audio appliances.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some conventional electronic products including video and audio appliances use a cassette storing a recording medium such as a tape so as to record or reproduce various data. Such a cassette can be loaded into and unloaded from the applicable electronic product.
Referring to FIG. 7 showing the case of a video cassette tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as "VTR") 20, for example, a cassette 10 storing a tape record medium is inserted into a cassette inserting slot 37 provided at the front panel of the VTR 20 so that the cassette 10 is loaded into the VTR 20 (usually referred to as "cassette loading"). The cassette inserting slot 37 is provided with a cassette door 25 rotatable around the top end. To insert a cassette, the user presses and opens the cassette door 25 with the front end of the cassette 10.
In this process, the cassette 10 is, as shown in FIG. 8, inserted into the cassette inserting slot 37 from the side of a lid 10a with the back side bearing a label 11 directed toward the user, and guided by a cassette guiding member 20a formed at the lower part of the cassette inserting slot 37 to be accepted by a cassette holder (not shown). After accepting the cassette, the cassette holder is driven in a horizontal direction to transfer the cassette 10 to above a predetermined position, that is, above the reel base. Then, it is driven to go down vertically to place the cassette 10 on the reel base in the housing. For ejection, it raises the cassette vertically and transfers it horizontally via the cassette inserting slot 37 to a position where the user can pull out the cassette.
To support cassette insertion to the cassette holder and the above operations of the cassette holder, the cassette guiding member 20a is formed to have a substantially level surface on the top and to have both the ends of the cassette transfer direction chamfered and to have a vertical face 20b for the side facing inside of the housing. The chamfered part of the side near the user serves as a cassette inserting guide section 21 and the chamfered part inside the housing serves as a cassette ejecting guide section 23. They are designed so that the cassette holder goes up and down in the space inside the housing parted by the vertical face 20b of the housing.
FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) show the positional relation between the cassette guiding member 20a of the VTR and the cassette 10 upon completion of cassette 10 transfer to the reel base. FIG. 9(a) is a plan view and FIG. 9(b) is a cross sectional view along the line A--A in FIG. 9(a). As shown in the figures, the face bearing the label 11 of the cassette 10 is opposite the inner vertical face 20b of the cassette guiding member 20a.
The user desires to quickly check the contents of the actually loaded cassette 10 before operating the VTR 20 for the object operation. Suppose a cassette 10 which is kept loaded for a long time without being used, for example. The user often forgets what kind of programs are recorded on the cassette 10. When the user wants to record a new program, it is necessary to check whether the data in the loaded cassette can be overwritten with the program. For this purpose, the user may play the cassette to verify the contents. If the user can check the description on the label 11 of the cassette 10, the contents can be checked quite easily in a short time.
However, the cassette 10 loaded in the VTR 20 has its label 11 opposite the inner vertical face 20b of the cassette guiding member 20a as described above. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10, even if the user opens the cassette door 25 and looks inside of the VTR 20, the cassette guiding member 20a obstructs the user's view to the label 11.
To enable viewing the label 11 with the cassette 10 kept loaded in the VTR 20, it is sufficient to partially remove the obstructive cassette guiding member 20a in the area where such removal does not spoil its essential function. In addition, forming the cassette door 25 with a transparent material eliminates the need to open the door to see the label.
However, if the cassette door 25 is transparent, the mechanism inside of the VTR 20 is always seen via the cassette door 25 and it is not favorable from the viewpoint of product design.
As described above, there has been a problem with the construction which enables viewing of the label on the loaded cassette through the cassette door, which results in that the mechanism in the housing is seen, and which is not favorable from the viewpoint of product design.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cassette display viewer device which allows the user to see the cassette label even after cassette loading but prevents the user from looking into the internal mechanism of the product as far as possible so as to improve the product design.